Dear Editor,
This is not a question that will show up on a ballot, so it’s more of a philosophical, rather than a political issue. During this time when most economic activity is suspended, is a good time to re-evaluate our relationships within the institutionalized rat-race economy.
You probably know a millionaire or two. I know a few and it’s not because I travel with the economic powerhouse crowd. They live and work in this region. They’re not uppity or show-offish about it, it’s just their life. Mostly, they started at a fairly high rung on the ladder, worked diligently, and didn’t make bad business decisions.
You probably don’t know any billionaires. There’s no good reason for them to live around here. If I were to take all the money I’ve ever had or spent, and put it in a bag at the end of the driveway, it wouldn’t be worth a billionaire’s time to haul it away. They don’t punch a clock or handle cash. Nobody can intelligently spend, much less earn, a billion dollars in one lifetime. So anyone who has a billion dollars has, in effect, stolen $999,000,000 of it. From where or whom did they take this extra money? From you and me, and the billions of people worldwide who dwell in the sub-millionaire realm. We’re the people who can’t afford a lawyer-accountant to shelter funds in offshore banks, claim government business incentives, receive stock options and bonuses, and hide income from snoopy tax collectors.
It has been said that we can’t afford to feed and house the poor, but I submit that it could be done, if we could forego feeding the insatiable appetites of the hyper-wealthy. Their impregnable fortress is the corporation. A corporation is a fictional person who comes into being at the behest of investors, can conduct business, pay wages, buy and sell property, but unlike you or me, a corporation can never die, and is thus immune to moral consequences. It’s a concept new to human civilization, being only a few hundred years old.
Like I said, it’s not likely to show up on a ballot anytime soon, because billionaires decide who runs for office and what bills come to a vote. But wouldn’t it be interesting, to see how such a vote would turn out? Am I a socialist? Well, like you, I’m living in a socialist society, where water systems, sewers, roads, schools and hospitals are funded and therefore controlled by the government. You rugged individualists don’t really hack your own road through the wilderness, each time you make a run for coffee, cigarettes or ammunition, do you? Don’t worry, I’m not going to blow your cover, you billionaire want-to-be’s, it’s just us peons here, discussing amongst ourselves, how good it would be, if taxes went to pay teachers, health care workers, janitors, store clerks and so on, instead of tax-breaks for those who already have too much money to spend, but want more. Think about it next election cycle – vote for the ground-level essential workers to get a fair shake, even if it means ‘stealing’ back some of the ill-gotten gains Scrooge McDuck has sequestered offshore. During this pandemic, who has covered your vulnerable backside? Billionaires? Not so much.
Robert Wills
Shawville and Thorne, Que.
